He retired in 1998, but was recalled in 2004 to review BBC journalism and values in response to the criticisms made by the Hutton inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly.
[2] He moved in 1969 to the Current Affairs Department in London to become a producer on the new series Nationwide, on which he worked until 1976, eventually becoming its output editor.
In 1980 he co-created Newsnight working alongside George Carey from News, taking over as the programme's editor in 1981 and directing its coverage of the Falklands War.
He then became the first editor of the BBC's Breakfast Time format, the UK's first national breakfast show when it began in 1983, which scooped the much more staid approach of its commercial rival TV-am by adopting a carefully relaxed and much more informal style.
The result was such a success that its style and even opening titles remained unchanged for almost ten years.